Intel claims MeeGo will live on

Intel rep Peter Biddle says reports of MeeGo's rather unceremonious death at the hands of Nokia and Microsoft have been greatly exaggerated.

To be sure, Biddle recently told Nicole Scott of Netbook News the nascent MeeGo still "has the potential" to claim third place in the fast-paced mobile operating system race.

"It seems [Nokia] is increasing salaries and bonuses to developers and engineers working on MeeGo. [The company] has committed to releasing the first MeeGo handset - the N950 - and they aren't planning on ditching a product that it is planning on bringing to market," explained Scott.

"Clearly, Nokia can't go Android or iOS, so they have to put their money on what will be the number 3 operating system. [Obviously], they are banking on Windows Phone 7, and really besides MeeGo, it's pretty much their only option... But a clear 3rd place is still TBA."

Scott also emphasized that MeeGo is a versatile, open-source platform capable of powering handsets, tablets and netbooks.

"And that may be why Nokia isn't letting go of MeeGo just yet. MeeGo has long-term potential, the key word being potential.

"The ability to develop once and scale to multiple hardware platforms still has many developers wiping the drool off their chins," she added.